Illuminated sign



April 11, 1957 B. w. WILLIAMS ETAL 3,313,056

ILLUMINATED SIGN 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 13, 1964 Briff W W/YI/bmsLemua/ W Williams INVENTORS April 11, 1967 a. w. WILLIAMS ETA-L3,313,056

' ILLUMINATED sum Filed Nov. 13, 1964 i 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 2

8m!!! BARREL Brill M. Williams Lemual W Williams INVENTORS BY @y 405:

w w mm United States Patent Ofifice 3,313,856 Patented Apr. 11, 19673,313,056 RLUMINATED SIGN Britt W. Williams, 1450 Oakhurst Ave. 32208,and Lemuel W. Williams, 4037 Nolan St. 32205, both of Jacksonville, Fla.

Filed Nov. 13, 1964, Ser. No. 410,884 13 Claims. (Cl. 40--77) Thisinvention relates to a novel and useful illuminated sign and morespecifically to an advertising display apparatus for displaying numeroustypes of printed advertising material.

The illuminated sign of the instant invention is generally cylindricalin configuration and is adapted to be supported in an upright positionin order that persons may view the advertising material by moving aboutthe sign. In addition, the illuminated sign includes a transparentupright tubular member in which a drum or rotor is rotatably mounted forrotation about an upstanding axis and means is provided for yieldablyurging rotation of the drum in one direction relative to the transparenttubular member whereby a sheet of printed material may be attached tothe drum through a vertical slot formed in one wall portion of thetubular member and automatically wound about the drum until the free endof the sheet of advertising material also passes through the slot andmay be secured to the rotor or drum. Suitable means may be provided forlimiting rotation of the drum to one revolution of the latter relativeto the cylindrical member in order. that suitable spring clips mountedon the rotor may be utilized to retain the sheet of advertising materialon the rotor. However, inasmuch as the sign is provided with a rotorupon which the advertising material is adapted to be supported forviewing, the rotor may be readily motorized so as to provide acontinuously rotating or oscillating advertising sign.

In the form of the illuminated sign illustrated and described hereinwherein the rotor is adapted to be limited to only full rotationrelative to the transparent tubular member in which it is disposed, theadvertising material mounted on the rotor will be in the form ofclassified advertisement and the illuminated sign may therefore bereadily utilized in any location wherein it might be desirable todisplay classified advertisements.

The main object of this invention is to provide'an illuminated signwhich will be capable of displaying various types of advertisements inan attractive manner.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel illuminatedsign including means by which the classified advertisements supportedthereby are illuminated from the back side of the material on which theadvertisements are printed.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an illuminated signconstructed in a manner whereby the advertisements displayed thereby maybe readily changed with a minimum amount of effort.

A final object of this invention to be specifically enumerated herein isto provide an illuminated sign construction in accordance with thepreceding objects which will conform to conventional forms ofmanufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to providea device that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relativelytroublefree in operation.

These together vn'th other objects and advantages which will becomesubsequently apparent reside in the details of construction andoperation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, whereinlike numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the illuminated sign ofthe instant invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged vertical section view taken substantially on theplane indicated by the section line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary further enlarged horizontal sectional viewtaken substantially upon the plane indicated by the section line 33 ofFIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of one upper marginaledge portion of the illuminated sign illustrating some of the morespecific structural features thereof.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings the numeral 10 generallydesignates the illuminated sign of the instant invention. The sign 10includes an upright tubular support post 12 whose lower end may besupported in any convenient manner from a suitable support surface.

The support post 12 includes a support fitting 14 including acylindrical portion 16 telescoped over and secured to a lower portion ofthe support post 12 in any convenient manner and an annular flangeportion 18 which projects radially outwardly from the upper end of thecylindrical portion 16. A generally circular'support member 20 providedwith a central opening 22 is disposed on the support post 12 with thelatter received through the opening 22. The support member 20 rests onthe annular flange portion 18 and has its outer peripheral portionsupported from the post 12 by means of curved brace mem bers 24. Thesupport member 20 includes an upwardly opening circular groove 26 whichis formed in its upper surface 28 and the lower end of a transparent andgenerally cylindrical tubular member 30 is seated in the groove 26.

The upper end of the support post 12 includes a generally circular topplate 32 and a generally convex circular top 34 is secured over the topplate 32 and to the upper end of the tubular member 30 by means of clips36 and fasteners 38.

The top 34 includes an outer marginal portion defining an outwardlyprojecting circumferential flange 40 which is turned in and under as at42 to form a reinforcing flange. In addition, the outer peripheralportion of the support member 20 defines a circumferential outwardlyprojecting flange 44 whose upper surface 46 defines a writing ledge.

A rotor generally referred to by the reference numeral 48 is disposedwithin the tubular member 30 and includes support post 12. Additionally,the lowerring 52 includes upper and lower rings 50 and 52. The ring 50includes a hub portion 54 from which it is supported by means ofgenerally radial spokes 56 and the hub portion 54 rotatably receives thecorresponding upper end portion of the a hub portion 58 from which it issupported by means of :a plurality of generally radial spokes 60 and itmay be seen from FIGURE 20f the drawings that the hub portion 58 is alsorotatably disposed on the support post 12. Further, a thrust bearing 62is disposed between confronting surfaces of the support member 20 andthe hubportion 58. I

A plurality of axially extending and circumferentially spaced supportmembers 64 are secured between the spokes 56 and the spokes 60 andinterconnect the rings 50 and 52 for simultaneous rotation relative tothe support post 12.

A pair of electrical conductors 66 and 68 extend upwardly through thesupport post 12 and through a pair of grommets 70 secured through thepost 12 between the hub portions 54 and 58. The electrical conductors 66and 68 have one pair of corresponding end portions elec tricallyconnected to a plurality of fluorescent light assemblies 72 and 74 andthe other pair of corresponding ends thereof (not shown) are adapted tobe electrically connected to a suitable source of electrical potential(not shown).

A coil spring 76 is operatively connected between the support post 12and one of the support or brace members 64 in a manner most clearly seenin FIGURE 3 of the drawings. The coil spring 76 yieldingly urges therotor 48 in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIGURE 3 of the drawingsand it may be seen that the tubular member 30 has an upstanding slot 78formed in one wall portion thereof and also that a pair of channelmembers 80 and 82 are secured to opposite side edge portions of the slot78. A removable transparent slide panel 84 is supported between thechannel members 80 and 82 and from FIG- URE l of the drawings it may beseen that the support member is slotted as at 86 to enable the panel 84to be slid downwardly past the support member 20 in order to open slot78.

Each of the upper and lower rings 50 and 52 includes a pair of springclips 88 and 90 and it may be seen that a sheet 92 of advertisingmaterial may have one end portion 94 secured to the rings 50 and 52 bymeans of the spring clips 88. Then, the rotor 48 may be rotated so as towind the sheet 92 on the rings 50 and 52 until the free end of the sheet92 is in position to be secured to the rings 50 and 52 by means of thespring clips 90.

A suitable center ornamental post 96 may be secured to the top plate 32and project upwardly through the top 34 and support suitable signs 98thereon for attracting persons to the illuminated sign 10. The upper endof the tubular member 30 is provided with a plurality ofcircumferentially spaced vent openings 100 and suitable screeningmaterial 102 may be secured over the vent openings, 100.

As hereinbefore set forth although the coil spring 76 has beenillustrated and described, it is to be noted that it may be eliminatedin favor of an electric motor or the like designed to either oscillatethe rotor 48 or continuously rotate the rotor 48 in one direction. Ofcourse, suitable drive means would also have to be provided fordrivingly connecting the. electric motor to the rotor 48.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles ofthe invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes willreadily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limitthe invention to the exact construction and operation shown anddescribed, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalentsmay be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention asclaimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. An illuminated sign comprising an upright transparent tubular member,a rotor in said tubular member journalled for rotation about an uprightaxis generally coinciding with the upright center axis of said tubularmember, said tubular member including means defining an upstanding slotin one wall portion thereof horizontally aligned with said rotor, andmeans carried by said rotor for drawing a horizontally elongatedflexible sheet through said slot, said means further adapted to secureone end of said horizontally elongated flexible sheet on said rotor forwindingsaid sheet on said rotor and'also means adapted to secure theother end of said sheet to said rotor.

The gombina tion of claim 1 wherein said rotor includes a pair of upperand lower vertically spaced rings from which the last two mentionedmeans are supported.

3. The combination of claim 1 including a removable closure for saidslot.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein said tubular member includes meansdefining opposing channels extending along the opposite sides of saidslot, said removable closure comprising a slide closure panel slidablysupported between said channels.

5. The combination of claim 1 including means operatively connectedbetween said rotor and said tubular member yieldably urging rotation ofsaid rotor in one direction relative to said tubular member.

6. The combination of claim 1 including illumination means disposed insaid rotor adapted to cast light through said sheet.

7. The combination of claim 1 wherein said tubular member is closed atits upper end.

8. The combination of claim 7 wherein said tubular member includes anoutwardly projecting circumferential flange adjacent its upper end.

9. The combination of claim 1 wherein said tubular member includes anoutwardly projecting circumferential flange adjacent its lower end.

10. The combination of claim 1 including an upright post from whoseupper end portion said tubular member is concentrically supported.

11. An illuminated sign comprising a tubular member including at leastsome transparent portions, a rotor journalled in said tubular member forrotation about an axis extending longitudinally of said tubular member,said tubular member including means defining an elongated slot in andextending longitudinally of one wall portion thereof, said rotorincluding means adapted to secure one end of a flexible sheet to saidrotor for winding of said sheet on said rotor upon its rotation relativeto said tubular member, said rotor being positioned relative to saidslot whereby said one end of said sheet may be threaded through saidslot and secured to said rotor for Winding thereon upon rotation of saidrotor with said sheet being drawn through said slot, and said rotorfurther including means adapted to secure the other end of said sheet tosaid rotor after said sheet has been wound thereon, the axis of saidrotor being positioned relative to said transparent portion so as toposition at least portions of said sheet in registry with saidtransparent portions of said tubular member.

12. The combination of claim 11 including a removable closure for saidslot.

13. The combination of claim 11 including illumination means' supportedfrom said rotor for casting light through at least a portion of saidsheet in registry with said transparent portions of said tubular member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,100,853 11/1937Jennings 4033 FOREIGN PATENTS 532,405 1/ 1941 Great Britain.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner. W. GRIEB, Assistant Examiner.

1. AN ILLUMINATED SIGN COMPRISING AN UPRIGHT TRANSPARENT TUBULAR MEMBER,A ROTOR IN SAID TUBULAR MEMBER JOURNALLED FOR ROTATION ABOUT AN UPRIGHTAXIS GENERALLY COINCIDING WITH THE UPRIGHT CENTER AXIS OF SAID TUBULARMEMBER, SAID TUBULAR MEMBER INCLUDING MEANS DEFINING AN UPSTANDING SLOTIN ONE WALL PORTION THEREOF HORIZONTALLY ALIGNED WITH SAID ROTOR, ANDMEANS CARRIED BY SAID ROTOR FOR DRAWING A HORIZONTALLY ELONGATEDFLEXIBLE SHEET